a broken lull.

w-holy shit.
so yesterday i hear that this really cute girl from work told my ex that she misses me because we don't see each other at work anymore, right? (she gushes more over my future roommate, though -- how cool he is and how cute his eyes are.) well, today she told my ex that she didn't get what was wrong with me, couldn't understand what i was waiting for. we didn't know what that meant either, but the next thing surprised the fuck outta me -- she told my ex that she might ask me out, to try i out. seriously (see? my fantasies can be true sometimes :P). she said she didn't have anything to lose by asking. the thing is, i can't see a potential relationship with this girl going on for even a year. it feels desperate (maybe it's my self-esteem talking :) like she's lonely and is just trying to hook up. i do believe she's kinda into me. i trust that. we hit it off kinda well last summer. but there's still something missing (even though we never went out or seriously hung out and talked to her). like i said, i don't think it would go too far. i'm looking for a serious relationship right now (if i am at all). of course i fantasize about a potential relationship with her (ever since the ex told me about her comment yesterday (and of course last summer)). but i also see (from what my small database on her consists of) it not going too far. she's definite eye-candy and i had fun being around her, but i believe she can be a tiny bit of a basket case. tiny bit. she's had a horrible past year, mostly coming from her messy breakup with her live-in boyfriend. i'm also work-friends with her younger brother (20). he obviously loves her but he's also got some issues with her. so i dunno how much salt i gotta take his comments with. that's the hard thing about it, i don't her that much. hmm. and now i'm stressing because of her off-hand comment about maybe asking me out. i'm stressing because she's the kind of insecure girl who'll just go for what she wants (but in my case i think i've got some time, i don't think she's unleashed the dogs just yet). i fear that it wouldn't go anywhere near where i'd want it to go, but at the same time i'm curious about her, and a possible us. if i were 24 i'd go for it. no question about it. but now i feel more mature, more responsible. uh. and it sucks. lol. going on a date would be fair, i think, (then there's the whole ex/work/coworkers shit to deal with) and essential to getting to really know her (we were on teasing mode all summer-long. i never really got to know her that well outside of that except for snippets of her life i'd hear from coworker friends). of course, i know that.

anyway.
lol.
talk about putting the horse before the cart, uh? :P

input. input. please :)
thank you :) and goodnight to all.

Posted by Anonymous | 10:45 PM |

Casque d'or
Jacques Becker, 1952 // the criterion collection //

7.0
i wasn't that intrigued last year when Criterion announced it planned to release Jacques Becker's Casque d'or and Touchez pas au grisbi. but then i saw Le trou. that was a turning point. it's an amazing film (about a simple prison break). that immediately got me excited about the two Criterion titles. sadly, though, Casque d'or didn't really do it for me. audiences at the time didn't take too well to it either. it was a period romance. a guy falls for a gangster's moll. it's less film noir than it sounds and more your run-of-the-mill period romance. a far cry from Becker's usual thrillers. of course his fingerprints are everywhere on the film. but it's the easy dancing, the foggy lense close-ups, and the lovey-dovey eyes the two 'lovers' exchange that make it a jarring flick to digest. the last act is worth it for Becker fans as the film suddenly grows some uncontested balls and grows dangerously dark. maybe that was the point. even though Reggiani's character is playing around with a gangster's moll, it's mostly safe for him because, even when it's out in the open, everyone just laughs it off. maybe that was Becker's intentions, to lull us into a safe zone and think we're watching a period romance after all. maybe that was it. but i felt the journey was a bit too long and uninvolving for me to feel rewarded at the end.

Posted by Anonymous | 6:53 PM |

well i just learned that Canada Post has stopped all saturday pickups in the area. this sucks. i started to see the trend last weekend while i wanted to mail back dvd's before the 2 pm pickup time. all my usual dropoff mailboxes had new stickers on them advising us that there were no pickups on saturdays. i thought maybe the big ones still do. this morning i called one of them up and the woman told me they weren't doing them in the whole city anymore. oh well.

yesterday i finally received my DVDHype discs. it took them 4 frickin' days from Montreal. that's a load of shit. oh well. i'll stay with them for a month after my free trial so i can't get as many of the first three Alias seasons as possible and then call it quits. so yesterday i'm obsessively watching out for the mailman so i can burn the discs and send them back asap before going to work. he finally arrives around 3:40, 40 minutes before i have to leave for work! i was able to move two full discs of Alias to my harddrive (while taking a shower and getting my lunch ready) before rushing out the door to go to work and mailing the discs back. that was cool.

this week also saw me turning on a dime -- first learning that Garbage was coming to Montreal (hell yeah. it's starting to sink in now) in April, looking up info on the fanclub to see if Montreal was part of the pre-sale the next morning, joining the fanclub, and finally getting up at 8:30 the next morning (having gone to bed at 4 the previous night because of work) so i could get my tickets for the show. huge thanks to my friend Melissa (who happened to be watching Musique Plus when they happened to mention it -- talk about luck) for tipping me off about it the afternoon before the pre-sale. i'm so psyched. looking for new Garbage promos to pop up online.

i also got a bunch of Criterion discs from Zip -- Jacques Becker's Casque d'or, Jules Dassin's Thieves' Highway, and William Dieterle's The Devil & Daniel Webster (and i got two more on the way -- The Rock (Criterion's two-disc set) and Jules Dassin's Night and the City. i'm more than pleased about this Zip week. this is what i get for freeing up disc space by switching my tv discs over to DVDHype). i'll be watching a couple of those over the weekend. (ooh, and i finally got my Fanny & Alexander box set from DVDPacific this week also.) sunday night i'm taping the Oscars for the ex-roommate. as usual, i'm not planning on watching them but i might end up doing just like i always do -- checking in from time to time but end up watching the bulk of it -- and regret it when all's said and done. Chris Rock would be the reason i'd watch it this year, though. that's a huge pull.

speaking of the weekend -- a friend from work is supposed to come by today (still hasn't called, though) so we can talk about him moving here :) after weeks of waiting for an official answer from him. back in mid-january he mentioned if i was looking for a roommate. this took me by surprise but i told him i was. we both agreed we'd get along well, even friends from work agree. last week he finally broke it off with his live-in girlfriend (they knew they'd go their separate ways by July 1st - Moving Day up here in Canada) and he told me this was still his first and only choice for a new place. i'm very pleased with this. so today, presumably, we'll make this official and i can stop wondering about it (looking for a new place would not be a pleasant thing to have to do right now).

update, 4:08 pm

eh, the ex just called me from work. we're gonna watch a movie or two tonight. but she was talking with a coworker today. this friend of ours (the coworker) worked both days last weekend with my (hopefully) future roommate and she was kinda smitten by him. she told the ex this earlier this week. well, today she was still kinda talking about him even though she hadn't seen him in a week. well, that's not the good part. i don't know how they got on the subject but almost in the same breath she mentioned that she missed me :P that was sweet of her. i've only seen her twice since last august (she was invited to the pre-dinner for my birthday in october, and then at the other end of the parking lot at work). i got on great with her, especially last summer when we were working almost side-by-side for a couple of months and we kinda started to get to know each other a bit (but our teasing and joking around had started to develop into its own unique thing between the two of us). i don't want you to get the idea that she'd be perfect for me, i don't see it that way, but i was damn pleased to hear that she missed me. i'll say this, though, as i am pleased to repeat whenever the subject of her appearance is brought up -- she's the only girl i've met in real life that i thought could be a model. seriously. she's got it, she's got an aura about her. not the snobby part, just her appearance and the way she handles herself. anyway, that was sweet of her (now that i think of it -- especially since it's not something she'd tell me to my face). and i know, from the ex talking to her last summer, that she was thinking about me in a boyfriend-type of way back then until she saw that the ex was interested in me. but she's a bit young (22, i think, but looks a bit older) and i'm putting this on the backburner. but it's sure as hell nice to have her talk about me in this way :) that is all.

Posted by Anonymous | 12:19 PM |

hint, hint: Garbage fans might wanna go to the band's website and try to find out about -new- tour dates. they might also wanna do that before 9 am this morning. (if not, then you'll get your chance with the general public saturday morning.)

ps. i'm majorly excited about this.

update, 9:06 am

sorry about the hush-hush nature of the above post.

i just got myself TWO TICKETS TO THE GARBAGE SHOW IN MONTREAL !!!!! :D
April 24 is the date.

that was a fanclub pre-sale. sale is open until tomorrow, i believe, though, so if you're a fan, just sign up to the fanclub ($20. but worth it for the peace of mind alone if you ask me) and you'll be able to get your ticket fix.

official ticket sale is saturday, noon.
check out the link above for info.

Garbage released 8 north american tour dates through their newsletter this week. i missed it but a friend called me up yesterday afternoon to tell me Musique Plus were gonna give away tickets to a Garbage show in Montreal. i was like, wtf? i didn't get the tickets but i looked around and, lo-and-behold, they'd put out tour dates for what looked like a small promo tour ... and Montreal was right there :) amazing. thank you, Garbage! i can't believe this. they didn't even get a proper show for beautifulgarbage here (only opened for U2) so it has been a full 6 years since i last saw them headline their own show. and the show is at the Metropolis, one of my favorite venues.

so, get back to me if you're going to the show (or to any of the US shows, really :) this is too cool.

their site mentioned that the tour will begin in Fall 2005.
that's a long way off; which makes this promo tour -and getting tickets to it- even sweeter :)

ps. i finally got my Fanny & Alexander Box Set in the mail yesterday. this is a good week :)

Posted by Anonymous | 3:33 AM |

24: Day 4
4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

kind of a boring episode. not bad. just not that involving, really.

although the Paul Raines storyline being picked up again, a full 5 or 6 shows later, was a great twist. the writers are usually not that patient. and actor James Frain played him remarkably well, simultaneously vulnerable and hopeful but also a bit baffled by his soon-to-be ex-wife's sudden change of heart. it was touching to see him so open and honest, paying no mind to the fact that maybe she/they'd caught up with him (if he or his company is even involved in the terrorist attack). i loved that. he wasn't as cynical or barbaric as previous characters have been in that situation before.

btw, Curtis is tough man to be able to resist Aisha Tyler. i know i wouldn't have made it to that office building with her. so long, Marianne.

i loved the bunker where we caught up with most of what's happened since the start of the season. the atmosphere, with the lights buzzing, was perfect for the mid-season stretch, letting it sink in a bit.

i was surprisingly touched by Tony's answer to Jack wanting to reinstate him with CTU. i mean, it was drenched in sentimentality, and i saw it coming a mile away, but when Tony said he'd do it i got choked up a bit.

btw, please stop killing off suspects just when you've caught them. it's starting to get a little old. killing off suspects who have information is the new kidnapping Kim Bauer.

so, like i said, a pretty tame, but not bad, episode.

ps. congrats to Sean Callery for scoring yet another fine episode here. the music was outstanding (except for the boring old weird music for weird scenes, ie. Audrey and Paul in the hotel room).

Posted by Anonymous | 11:15 AM |

there are a couple of interesting album releases today, most notably Tori Amos' The Beekeeper (fyi, there's a special edition available but us canadians will most probably have to wait until next week for it to appear in our stores). also along for the commercial ride are Iron and Wine's The Woman King ep, the Thievery Corporation's new disc, The Cosmic Game, and M. Ward's Transistor Radio.

ps. i don't have to wait for the ex to watch 24 this week. i'll be watching the episode right after this so i'll most likely be posting my thoughts before noon.

Posted by Anonymous | 9:56 AM |

originally posted, 1:02 am

i finally decided to go with DVDHype.

mostly because it's closer so i'll get the first batch of dvd's quicker this way. remember, this is only a temporary fix for my tv series. i'm not looking into a new service here, Zip is doing an excellent job. it's just that following a television series on dvd while also renting out movies can put a snag in your rental list. add to that about week, sometimes even two, for the next disc to make its way into the rotation and to your home and you've lost quite a bit of time between episodes. with dvd sets, i got used to being able to watch a few episodes if i felt like it. i also found out i'd actually registered before with VHQ. they had my name and address down, so i couldn't use their free trial, it seems (it's weird because i don't remember ever getting a disc from them. ever). but that's alright, i might go to them for a month for the second and third seasons of Alias if DVDHype bogs down on me. we'll see. i'm hoping to see quick shipping times, especially considering it's only 90 minutes away.

but i wanna continue urging you to share your thoughts and comments on any canadian rental service (aside from my dear old Zip or RentaDVD), especially DVDHype and VHQ. thank you very much.

update, 11:08 am

DVDHype -- the first three discs have shipped! :)

they're for real.
and i'm pretty pleased with it. as i was expecting, they shipped my top three choices (they were all In Stock items, which means they physically had the discs in their warehouse at the time). i'm just relieved, and a little bit surprised, to see them shipped this morning. that's cool. they say the eta on these discs is thursday. we'll see how that goes. i would love to see them get here in two days, though (Montreal is so close by). it's a possibility, but thursday would put them on par with Zip and i've got no problem with that. hey, i'd be with them for my two-week trial and probably for a full month after that (i found a $5 rebate - 4 discs out/$19.99) then call it quits. i could live with that. we'll see how it goes with the next batch (some Med Wait discs are coming up on my list) but i'll probably just end up mixing-n-matching with Zip when the time comes. i just wanted to stock up on these sets asap so i could save some time and energy on renting them.

sorry if i've been chewing your ears off lately about this but, as you've probably realized by now, it's kinda been obsessing me :P

Posted by Anonymous | 11:11 AM |

oh my god.
this'll be hitting the shitwire pretty soon:

not only did Hunter S. Thompson die this weekend -- he killed himself.
this is one of the big ones.

okay. i wouldn't normally post this right after writing about RIP Hunter S. but i gotta. apparently this went on a while ago. the dude who did this pleaded guilty last week. but it's way too important and i'd never heard of it before, so there. stuff has already started being taken down, go to it:

Paris Hilton's T-Mobile got hacked!
notebook and pictures are online. ever wanted to see a shitload of celebrity phone numbers in one list? this girl had 'em.

Posted by Anonymous | 9:03 AM |

[ huge, clear and precise, bump :: at the risk of repeating myself ]

i wanna hear all your thoughts and comments on the following (or any other service i haven't thought of) -- keep in mind that i would only join them for their trial period or a full month:

DVDHype
VHQ Online

and Movies for Me, if really necessary. i just wanna hear your thoughts on this one.

i'd be renting television series so i would presume the availability factor would be down to a minimum. quick shipping is my main factor in this endeavor (fyi, i live about an hour outside of Montreal).

thank you :)

Posted by Anonymous | 10:25 AM |

La commare secca
Bernardo Bertolucci, 1962 - the criterion collection -

8.0
for his first film, Bernardo Bertolucci works from a Rashomon-like story by mentor Pier Palo Pasolini about a murdered prostitute. the film has a graceful, lyrical quality to it thanks to Bertolucci's wandering camera (and the beautiful black and white transfer does it justice). the film starts with the discovery of the body and goes into the interrogations of the usual suspects. each suspect unravels his own immaculate tale of the fateful hours leading up to the murder. the first two suspects' tales are wonderful to watch, Bertolucci infuses them with such splendid shots that it gives the whole film a sort of poetic beauty. but it gets redundant by the third and fourth suspects. that's where i started asking myself, 'why am i caring about this?' i found that i was not, that i had lost interest. but the film is shot with so much confidence for such an extremely young (21 years-old) first-time director that i can't deny its inherent beauty. Bernardo Bertolucci wanted to make films and he did them as an artist and a true poet. taking a look at this one (only his debut, for christ's sake!), there's no denying the nature of the man's talent, or intentions, as a filmmaker. it's effortless. and that, for me, is always reason enough to sit down for.

Posted by Anonymous | 9:22 AM |

Criterion does it again.
a week ago, Buena Vista announced that it would be releasing The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou on dvd this spring. Criterion fans were miffed at the news because the label had hinted at a very strong possibility it would be working on Wes Anderson's new film for a dvd release. we still had the Tenenbaums and Chasing Amy joint releases to pin our hopes on, though. and we were seriously hoping for some quick update on the matter. well, check this out, people -- The Life Aquatic is spine #300! the double-disc set is to be released on May 10th (although it will also come in a very lame single-disc edition for the mom and pop stores. go fuck yourselves Blockbuster. i hate seeing dumbed-down editions of spectacular Criterion releases. oh well. at least it rarely happens).

bump-bump:

my online dvd rental question of the day. weekend edition.
please weigh in.

Posted by Anonymous | 7:51 PM |

You scored as Musical/Rhythmic. You are sensitive to sounds in your environment, enjoy music and prefer listening to music when you study or read. You learn best through melody and music. People like you include singers, conductors, composers, and others who appreciate the various elements of music.

Musical/Rhythmic		86%
Visual/Spatial		86%
Intrapersonal		82%
Bodily/Kinesthetic		79%
Verbal/Linguistic		68%
Interpersonal		54%
Logical/Mathematical		46%

The Rogers Indicator of Multiple Intelligences
created with QuizFarm.com

this ain't 100% accurate or all-emcompassing but it does get some stuff right.
not so sure about the 'learning through melody' part, though.

thanks to Neva for the tip.

Posted by Anonymous | 4:06 PM |

it's saturday, early afternoon. yesterday i finally checked out Blockbuster's tv series selection ... and they had nothing. i seriously thought they had more than that tiny section last time i checked. anyway. they had the Sopranos, Band of Brothers and Sex and the City's but no sign Alias (and i'm not holding my breath for any sign of Homicide anytime soon). today i'm gonna check out the other video stores and hope someone has at least Alias. i was thinking of maybe taking advantage of the free trials at some other online dvd rental places to get my tv fix. any suggestions? i was thinking of DVDHype (located in Montreal - extremely close and convenient for a trial) or VHQ.

yesterday i got Bernardo Bertolucci's La commare secca from Criterion. should watch that tonight.

Posted by Anonymous | 1:13 PM |

well, after waiting since monday afternoon for it to ship, i had to cancel my Future Shop order for Nelly's Suit and the new Lee Ann Womack album because both items were still listed In Stock but my order claimed they were Not Yet Shippable after 3 fucking days. forget it. since today's payday i'm just gonna swing by the store myself and pick them up instead (the Nelly album was a buck cheaper online). i gotta me get a dvd+rw's spindle anyway.

i've been on a constant tv diet of Alias (Season One) and Homicide: Life on the Street (Seasons 1&2) this week, watching an episode of each a day, and am loving it. i'm definitely dropping by Blockbuster today or tomorrow to see if they got the Alias sets in store.

update, 2:00 am

Nelly and Lee Ann Womack albums: done.
:)

Posted by Anonymous | 10:53 AM |

24: Day 4
3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

hmm. i watched it this afternoon and now it's 1 am. shit. what happened? oh yeah, Dina and Jack gave us a cool ending to the episode with Dina stating clearly her position in her "war" and Jack just saying 'you got that?' to the person at the other end of the phone line. nice.

we also saw a nice warm side to Jack when he interrogated her. i loved the way they were building his interrogation up, though, making it look like angry Jack was coming. but no. he was nice, sensitive and honest Jack.

that's all i pretty much remember. Edgar's mom is also commiting suicide in a lame scene where it was obvious the actors had shot their parts talking to an empty phone. bah. aside from that? no. nothing. Tony is still with Jack and we love that. that's it.

i'm still to steer clear of spoilers, forum talk, or even episode previews. i love it.

shit. what happened to Behrooz again?

oh, and i loved how Jack/CTU and the Dina/Behrooz storyline collided with one another. that was nicely done and not overcooked like it easily could have been.

Posted by Anonymous | 9:58 AM |

i got finally got Homicide: Life on the Street (The Complete Seasons 1&2) Disc 2 !!!!!
holy fucking hell yeah!!

Zip shipped it january 27th but i never got it (i even received Disc 3 a few days later but had to hold off on watching it, of course). i was waiting to see the mail today and then i was gonna officially report it missing. i didn't wanna do it but 2 and a half weeks is a long fucking time to wait for a disc that usually takes 3 days to get. i've never had a disc go missing for this long. i let that one go a long time ago. it got lost in Canada Post limbo. btw, i realized something this morning -- my Zip discs run me roughly about $2.30 each. last time i checked (last spring) my local video store rented out tv discs for $2 each. yeah. Blockbuster has tv shows in their old (re: cheaper) sections so i might also try those out. i remember watching the entire first season of The Sopranos that way. i took the next Alias disc off my Ziplist because of this. i just got Disc 3 of the season 1. i'm gonna swing by Blockbuster this week to see if they got all the Alias seasons. they should. if they do, i'll rent them cheaper with them and keep Zip for movies.

seeing as i'm lazy i just put in an order through FutureShop.ca for the following:

Nelly - Suit (the Tim McGraw duet floors me)
Lee Ann Womack - There's More Where That Came From (starting to see a trend here?)
Esthero - OG Bitch ($6.99. way less than HMV's $10.99 pricetag)

Posted by Anonymous | 1:08 PM |

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.

kisses and hugs to everyone who either needs or wants 'em. they're free.

Posted by Anonymous | 10:32 AM |

Ong-bak
Prachya Pinkaew, 2003

8.0
i'm giving this film an 8 for posterity's sake. forget the story, forget the horrible marketing ploy mentioning Bruce Lee, ignore the horrible dub, and hopefully you won't be caught with an audience of teenage boys weened on american 'kung fu' flicks. apparently, Luc Besson re-cut the film for european and western audiences. this is almost always a horrible idea (they also re-did the whole score; which i actually don't mind as much because it was good (even throwing in some Timbaland-sounding beats during the taxi sequence)). i haven't seen the original so i can't point to any of the new edits, some of it does have a Besson feel, mostly because of the soundtrack, but it would be outstanding if we could, just once, get an asian flick in its original form. please. how hard would that be? just leave the film as it is and let audiences see it that way. we're not stupid. dumbing it down for certain audiences does keep us stupid, though, because, for example, most north american folks don't know that what a real Jackie Chan flick is. they think it's just him trading quips with a funny sidekick and making fun of his accent. well, it's not. most of these guys are imported, thrown in the Hollywood/Miramax machine and polished into an american sitcom script. i got a shitload of reality handed to me tonight. mostly it was because of the horrible dub, though. guys were laughing and scoffing through most of the non-action sequences. you gotta get into the culture, man. forgive me for complaining but i got to. anyway. with that out of the way i was able to enjoy the magnificient, modest, and surprisingly ferocious talents of one Panom Yeerum (aka Tony Jaa). i think Twitch said it best when he said the film felt like a highlight reel. it does. but the good kind. sit back and enjoy the Tony Jaa show. the man even co-choreographed the picture. as i said, forget the story and the dub and enjoy the action. i'm not an original in singing the man's praise but that's all i've got to give. i gotta mention Pumwaree Yodkamol's natural and charming performance as Muaylek. imdb says this is her only film. it's an outrage. i almost fell in love tonight. twice. Jaa's working on his second film right now, Tom yum goong, with his Ong-bak director. it's been two years since their first outing. hopefully they've learned from their debut. that one looks very promising. let him work on his craft a few more years before casting him as a villain in a Hollywood picture and ruining him for western audiences like you did with Jet Li and like you whored Jackie Chan. the american movie machine is way too into itself and way too monstruously big for these guys. tone it down a notch or two, you could learn a thing or two from these guys. thank you.

Posted by Anonymous | 11:47 PM |

i'm spent. i drove around the city trying to find a nice vacuum cleaner because i noticed this morning that my old one wasn't cleaning much anymore. but no one, no one - including Wal-Mart, Future Shop, Sears, and Zellers - had the one i wanted (within my price range, that is) -- the Eureka Boss Pro Lightweight. i spent about half an hour trying to find info on vacuum cleaners this morning and this one seemed a nice fit for me. but no one had it. i did find two stores specializing in vacuum cleaners but they were both closed because it's sunday. this week, maybe.

so i came home after all that. two hours of driving around.

when i was at Future Shop i looked at the cd's but didn't get any right away. i found one but wanted to make sure it was a good buy. well, now i'm convinced and i'll be going back soon for Lee Ann Womack's There's More Where That Came From (and only $12.99 at Future Shop too). i saw the video for the aching I May Hate Myself in the Morning and loved it. that's the kind of music i've been needing these past few days.

speaking which - the ex and i are planning on seeing Ong-Bak tonight. it was her call; last night i offered her this or watching either Masayuki Suo's Shall We Dance or Jacques Becker's Casque d'or at my place. she even said Casque d'or would be her choice if we were to watch a dvd. but i just got off the phone with her and she made the wise decision of going to the movie theater instead of watching a movie at my place :) not necessarily what i would've liked but it's a wise decision. i'm okay with it. as i told her, there's always gonna be a next time when we'll be together and might wanna get closer or watch a movie on the couch and it'll be awkward or confusing to both of us. we're not immune. our grieving periods aren't over.

Posted by Anonymous | 4:25 PM |

hey, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the broken lull ! it turned a whole 2 yesterday :)

i guess this is the year i say no no no to everything, hit various things around the house, and hide in the cupboards, uh?
looking forward to it.

Posted by Anonymous | 11:59 AM |

this morning Howard Dean was elected DNC Chairman!

all hail Jesus, there is a god (and he's not necessarily republican).

thank you, Dems. you did the right thing.
from the bottom of my heart, thank you very much.

Posted by Anonymous | 1:32 AM |

life feels good. this week started out weird, bitter and sad, then i had friends and work to fall back on, then thursday night i got bitterly jealous. yesterday i saw the ex again at work and she was either trying to be nice to me or wanna get back with me. i wasn't sure. either way, it wasn't gonna be soon so i'd better go on with my grieving. spent the day driving out to my mom's to check out her computer. then i spent the entire afternoon with the ex-roommate, running errands left and right, playing with the cat, and watching tv. but i'd talked to the ex and i'd let her know i was coming back around dinner time. so i was kinda pressed for time and wanted to come back early enough not to miss her call(s). i just got off the phone with her. she spent the day at home, alone, watching movies and eating. to my surprise, though, she's much more caught between the other guy and i than i was expecting. i thought since i couldn't offer her a real relationship (ain't in love) she'd sure as hell take a chance with the other guy whom she was interested in last year. but no. seems she liked the time we spent together. anyway. i'm just flattered. i miss her. i miss the time we spent together. absolutely. but i'm not as stupid as to expect her to come back to me. no fucking way. i wouldn't do it if i was her. but it's nice to know that i'm not the only one agonizing over this decision. we might do something tomorrow night. either watch a dvd or go out to a movie (Ong-Bak -- sadly, in french 'cause no one's showing the original version anywhere in quebec. it's either english or french. and i showed the trailer to the ex-roommate, just so she'd know what i was talking about and blow her mind in the process. obviously, since it was a dub, i'd made up my mind not to go see it -- but damn, by showing her the trailer i convinced myself to go see it :P lol). so that's it. that's where we're at today. i'm happy to say i'm actually content tonight.

swung by the record store on my way back and finally picked up:

Bright Eyes - Lua
Bright Eyes - Take It Easy (Love Nothing)

Future Shop was closed when i got back so i couldn't go there. they've got a couple of cd's i wanna pick up. tomorrow.

Posted by Anonymous | 7:33 PM |

people got me so confused this week.
Arrested Development has NOT been CANCELLED.
please stop it. sheesh. lol. Fox have only made some space for American Dad in May. that's it. folks sure do love shooting their mouths off at the first sign of an irregular programming schedule, don't they?

please stop it and breathe.
thank you.

Posted by Anonymous | 11:14 AM |

late-night posting.

something that went unnoticed recently that shouldn't have:

Zach Braff posted again. among numerous updates on loads of stuff he's been working on, he mentioned the following nugget -- 'Working on "Arrested Development". I'm going to be shooting a small part on my second favorite TV comedy on Monday.'

nice.
speaking of Arrested Development, i actually caught Jason Bateman, series creator Mitchell Hurwitz, Ron Howard, and Brian Grazer on Charlie Rose this afternoon. Howard mentioned a couple of upcoming guest stars, including Ben Stiller. apparently, Jason Bateman and the show are now red hot (please don't tweak the show too much) - Bateman will be hosting SNL this saturday (with Kelly Clarkson handling the musical act part of the reliably sucky show).

actress Shohreh Aghdashloo plays 24's Dina Araz, baron-mother to used-to-be innocent little Behrooz. well, thanks to Time magazine i now know that she was actually nominated for a fucking Oscar last year for her supporting role in House of Sand and Fog! holy hell. i've always thought she added amazing depth to her character on 24, but this new tidbit (for myself) just adds a small layer on top of the top-notch job everyone's been doing over at 24. i love it when bits like this escape me. sidenote: according to imdb, Jonathan Ahdout, aka Behrooz, is this close to only being 15 years old! shit, i thought he was older than that. 15. that's young. oh, and he was also in House of Sand and Fog :) i love it when info like this come up.

Posted by Anonymous | 2:02 AM |

24: Day 4
2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

143 days later, here i am with my thoughts on monday's episode of 24.

i'll say it again -- it irrates each and every time the writers feel the need to update viewers on every twist and turn, event recent ones, by giving characters lame exposition dialogue. please stop it. it's been nagging me since season two.

that being said, the last episode was a nice one, with the (eventual) capture of Marianne (who, btw, has a weird walk - a duck walk?). there was something new to the mole character this time around. and most of the praise goes to Aisha Tyler for creating such a cool and calm character.

Tony is Jack at the start of season two. albeit with a 19 year-old ass for a girlfriend. and does it get hotter than Jack and Tony walking out of Tony's house? not by much. the boys are back! hopefully, we'll see my wish of field ops Jack and Tony for an episode or two before returning to CTU where Audrey will get kidnapped (although, the writers do seem a bit smarter this season).

that's pretty much it, i think. there was some humor injected by the characters this time around. oh, and Edgar still rocks.

Posted by Anonymous | 11:11 AM |

the breakup - part two.

the ex and i kept seeing each other since i/we broke it off mid-december. it was all very clear - we liked each other's company but we weren't in a relationship (i'd put an end to our relationship because i wasn't in love with her and thought it wasn't fair). it would go on until someone would start feeling a bit more towards the other. so we called each other up almost as much as before and spent most of our days off together. we looked forward to her spending the night at my place, which happened a couple of times a week. i kept asking her if she was alright with out arrangement and she always was. it was cool. we knew it would have to stop at some point in the future but for the time being we were both enjoying ourselves and cared for each other tremendously. but a guy just entered the picture. she liked and pursued him last year but to no avail. but he just came back in the picture last friday. i picked her up at 1 am after work. she'd told me a friend of hers swing by but he would be gone by then so it was alright. well, i dropped by and there he was, sitting at the kitchen table with his empty McDonald's bag. i sat down and talked with them, waiting for her to send him packing so we could go and go to bed. i couldn't say anything because our little arrangement is little-known amongst our friends. this guy just kept on talking even though it was obvious i was just deadweight at the table waiting for it to end. after about 45 minutes he got up to leave ... but he stopped in the living room, took the Coldplay tab book and sat down to play some of its tunes. dammit. anyway. at 2 am he was finally gone so we left. i was pissed at the guy but also pissed because she didn't have the balls to tell him to go. she just sheepishly told me he just wasn't leaving. well, hell, if you want him to leave so bad, tell him. anyway. that was done. all was good. then this morning she calls me and it seems she went to the movie theater with this guy and his brother. it's obvious she's at the very least curious but she doesn't seem to wanna even acknowledge that to herself. i thought she didn't want to deal with him because of last year's failed attempt. this is the impression she was giving me. anyway. i asked her what she was doing tonight after work. we could watch tonight's 24. she said sure, she was all excited. then i asked her what she'd be doing after that. she said maybe take a walk. i said, 'what?' she wasn't comfortable with spending the night. hmm. i had to ask her if it was because of the guy and she said some of it, yeah. half an hour later and we're broken off again. and this time we didn't even have an official relationship to break off:) anyway. she wasn't sure she understood why i was pissed. she asked if i was in love with her, knowing i wasn't. i asked her how she'd be if i told her i'd seen this girl friend of ours twice last week and that maybe i was interested. she said she'd be pissed and wouldn't wanna speak to me again. that's it, i said (not the 'never talk to me again' part, the first one). she got it.

okay. we weren't in a relationship but what we had had every aspect of it. we knew it would end at some point, i'm just shocked it's this sudden. i'm bitter about it. she also feels fucked about it, though. she didn't want it to end this way. seeing her and doing things with her (yeah, even the non-dirty stuff:) was a big part of my life for the past few weeks. i'd gotten used to it, calling her up whenever we felt like seeing each other and spending the night. now it's over, it seems. but after all that loss, i did feel a moment freedom and some hope. so i'm not devastated. but i'll miss her company.

thanks for listening:)

Posted by Anonymous | 3:01 PM |

Dave Grohl via the Garbage Fan Site/NME:

"I play on a Garbage track called ‘Bad Boyfriend’," he continued. "Butch Vig called me and said ‘Come in and play on it’, and you know, if there’s anyone in the world I owe a favour to it’s that dude, so I figured I’d go in and do it, and it was a lot of fun.

okay, not necessarily a stellar endorsement but the first part more than makes up for the crappy Foo music he's been giving us since the second album. go read the rest of the article for some info on his part on the new Nine Inch album. can't wait to hear what Trent has in store for us in 2005.

Posted by Anonymous | 9:26 PM |

i'm not a gamer. i enjoy games but i'm not that interested in too many of them. i've had my Playstation 2 for 4 years and right now i only own grand theft auto - vice city and two Wipeout games. but last december i got a big-ass computer and a couple of friends of mine do play games on their pc's so i thought i'd give them a try at some point. this one friend lent me Splinter Cell - Pandora Tomorrow, hacked from the XBox version. i was finally able to install it on my computer without having to copy the dvd. i played a little today and i'm slowly getting into it. if i enjoy it i'll check out other games. friday night after work i picked up the ex so she could spend the night. we wanted to get out saturday and do some walking because the weather has been outstanding lately. but when we got up saturday morning we had almost no energy. good intentions but no energy. we got out much later than we wanted to but we did end up taking a long walk around my old neighborhood, i showed her the two houses where i grew up. nostalgia kicked in a little. houses sparked memories of old friends and forgotten acquaintances. it was nice. i don't live that far away from where i grew up, only about 10 minutes by car, but this was a thorough walk :) in the evening we settled on watching The Big Lebowski. she'd never heard of it. she found it funny. i never get tired of John Goodman's performance in that film. and John Turturro did an outstanding job with the two minutes he was given. there's a Superbowl on tonight. thought i'd let you know :) myself, i'm not gonna watch it. i never watched an entire superbowl game in my life. no interest. i don't have any rented movies either so i'll probably watch one of my Criterions instead. i keep buying them up but, mostly because they're daunting cult classics, i end up not watching any of 'em. i might watch M tonight. if i can get off my ass this afternoon i'll swing by HMV and pick up the Snow Patrol disc and another one for $25.

Posted by Anonymous | 1:30 PM |

Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes will be appearing on TSN's excellent OTR next wednesday.

Posted by Anonymous | 1:24 PM |

kyle -- you can safely rent Oz. just rent the first disc to see if it's for you but i liked it. i just watched the first two episodes, and although i wasn't sure with the first one (not necessarily what i was expecting - the stylized beat poetry tone of the show threw me off a lot), the second episode hooked me and i just added the second disc to my list. have fun.

Posted by Anonymous | 10:57 AM |

there you go. the massive Criterion Fanny & Alexander Box Set has been ordered.

goodnight ;)

Posted by Anonymous | 2:17 AM |

it feels like all day i've been waiting for my shift to start. i gotta change that. i'm leaving for work in half an hour. i'm listening to CocoRosie album for the first time. amazing blind buy. used record stores rock. who the fuck said these girls were not to everyone's taste? i was expecting something so obtuse after those reviews. they're not weird at all. these are just great acoustic songs. nice atmosphere. i like it a lot. i went running for a bit this afternoon. when i came back i stopped at the mailbox and found a package waiting for me from DVDPacific. i was like, wtf? is this some sort of promo thing for ordering so much? then it hit me -- i'd put in the order for Kurosawa's Stray Dog (The Criterion Collection) last thursday!! i finally have it. this was the one i'd been waiting to order since i rented it last spring. amazing film. since tomorrow's payday, and this latest package from DVDPacific didn't even take a week to get here, i'm thinking about making another order (just one). the massive, 5-disc set for Fanny & Alexander has been my next choice. but the Renoir/Kurosawa double-feature for The Lower Depths is also close at the top of my list. we'll see. i'll order it tonight after work.

have a nice evening, everyone.

Posted by Anonymous | 3:53 PM |

today was a good day for me. i went to the sports store and finally got my North Face tuque. actually, i think it wasn't this one we'd seen but we couldn't find it. this one fit quite nicely so we went with it instead. i wasn't sure at the time; that's why i brought the ex with me, so she could give me a second opinion, but i'm actually loving it right now. the slightest hint of possible regret that was there when i purchased it has since evaporated. then i went to Future Shop to see if they had a couple of cd's i'd seen for next to nothing online -- small releases so that was a nice surprise but i wasn't sure they'd even have them. futureshop.ca was out of them. well, it took a bit of browsing but i walked out of the store with the lone copies of:

Ed Harcourt - Strangers [ the north american release has a bonus track | $10.99 ]
Jimmy Chamberlin Complex - life begins again [ $14.99 ]

not bad, uh? i couldn't believe prices that low for such low-key releases. oh, as we were leaving my apartment to go shopping, i saw the mailwoman coming back to our mailbox (i'd seen her drop off stuff earlier this morning but only had a bill to show for it) and then walk towards my apartment. she saw me back out of the driveway and, lo and behold, she started walking towards me with a smile. i got out of the car and she handed me a package ... from Saddle Creek :)

Bright Eyes - LIFTED or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
Bright Eyes - Digital Ash in a Digital Urn

all hail great sunny winter days.

Posted by Anonymous | 3:13 PM |

24: Day 4
1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

!!!!! TONY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fuck! me!


[ that's actually all i'm gonna say on the matter. ]

Posted by Anonymous | 11:46 AM |